Rolla: 6 Duets for Flute & Violin / Carbotta, Hossen
Dynamic
CD
$18.99May 10, 2019
This album features the World Premiere Recording of six unpublished duets for flute and violin, that flutist Mario Carbotta and violinist Mario Hossen drew from a manuscript kept in Mantua. Alessandro Rolla composed this music around 1795, while he was at the Court of Parma, where he was in charge of the music programming for Ferdinand I Bourbon’ s public events as well as private entertainments. For this reason Rolla conforms to the duet form of his day but infuses it with a gracefulness that makes his music, composed for pure and simple entertainment, very attractive. These works possess a pleasant, joyful yet delicate and entertaining mood. Flutist Mario Carbotta ranks among Dynamic’s “historical” artists. A solo performer who collaborated with over 70 symphony and chamber orchestras worldwide, a conductor, a musicologist and a teacher, his repertoire ranges from the 1700s to contemporary works. Violinist Mario Hossen was an enfant-prodige. Today, he is internationally hailed for his incredible virtuosity and charismatic stage presence. His repertoire spans from Renaissance to Classical music, contemporary works and Jazz. Hossen's musicological and artistic endeavors are especially devoted to source research on Nicolò Paganini.
Beethoven: Piano Concertos, Part 1 / Barnatan, Jackiw, Weilerstein, Gilbert, ASMF
PENTATONE
CD
$22.99$29.99Save 25%Oct 18, 2019
One of the most admired pianists of his generation, Inon Barnatan kicks off his complete Beethoven piano concertos cycle with this double album, together with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and maestro Alan Gilbert. Ranging from the classical First and Third to the experimental Fourth Piano Concerto, and closing with the festive Triple Concerto, Barnatan and his colleagues display the exceptional expressive range and stylistic diversity of Beethoven’s musical language. For the Triple Concerto, Barnatan joins forces with violinist Stefan Jackiw and cellist Alisa Weilerstein. This recording project bears the fruit of longstanding and profound musical friendships, and – surprisingly – offers the first integral recording of Beethoven piano concertos by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, one of the most-recorded ensembles in the world of classical music. Inon Barnatan is one of the most admired pianists of his generation (New York Times), now making his PENTATONE debut, to be followed by another Beethoven piano concertos album in 2020. The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields has built a consistent repertoire with the label throughout the years, whereas Alisa Weilerstein presented the first result of her exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE in 2018 with Transfigured Night.
REVIEW:
Pianist Inon Barnatan and colleagues display both exceptional expressive range and stylistic diversity. Joining forces with violinist Stefan Jackiw and cellist Alisa Weilerstein for the Triple Concerto, it's evident this project bears the fruits of deep musical friendships and shared understanding.
Violinist Raimund Lissy, member of the Vienna Philharmonic, has long been dedicated to the work of uncovering the works of Austrian composer Joseph Mayseder and make them available to a wider audience. After publishing two recordings with chamber music by the violin virtuoso who was born in 1789 in Vienna, the third volume contains violin concertos by Mayseder. Joined by the newly formed "Joseph Mayseder Orchestra" under the baton of Helmut Zehetner, Lissy presents the concerts for violin and orchestra No. 1 in A minor, Op. 22 (1813) and No. 3 in D major, Op. 28 (1811) as well as the Concertino for violin and orchestra No. 2 in E major, Op. 53 (1835). Raimund Lissy on the typical Mayseder style: Skillfully composed virtuosic passages for the violin alternate with pleasing cantilena, and there is a wealth of successful musical ideas that make rediscovering this music very rewarding.
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Op 10, No 1, 2 & 3 / Mari Kodama
PENTATONE
SACD
$16.99$21.99Save 20%Mar 29, 2011
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas, op. 10/1–3 • Mari Kodama (pn) • PENTATONE 5186 377 (SACD: 59:20)
This is the latest installment of a cycle-in-progress (though new to me) by Mari Kodama, a Japanese student of Nikolayeva and Brendel. Her playing is impressive in its refinement and control, if occasionally a little predictable. The three op. 10s make for a satisfying program, though they’re curiously presented in reverse order here (Beethoven’s own is more logical, with the biggest, most ambitious work placed last).
No. 1 in C Minor goes well, with few surprises. Kodama generally lets the outer movements speak for themselves—straight, incisive, dramatic, forceful, with effective lyrical contrasts. Tension is well maintained, with a convincing sense of real performance (vs. a recording-studio run-through). The Adagio is straightforward, perhaps to a fault—here I miss the imaginative flexibility and expressive depths others bring to the music (e.g., Schiff/ECM, Lewis/Harmonia Mundi, or the recently reviewed Ohlsson/Bridge and Ehlen/Azica). The recorded sound of her Steinway is rich, resonant, and close, but a little “plummy” for my taste, with a pronounced resonant overhang. Her playing is certainly not over-pedaled, but a real staccato articulation is in short supply.
This is a bigger drawback in the first movement of No. 2 in F where, for all the poise and polish, Beethoven’s numerous injunctions to very short articulations (e.g., at the beginning, bars 38 ff., and 47 ff.) are rarely effectively realized. The development has a slightly stolid feel (the second repeat is observed). The F-Minor Allegretto is taken slowly, to rather dour effect, with (for my taste) an insufficient variety of texture and attack; the Presto finale is kept well under control at a moderate tempo. In the last resort, I find this all a little too uneventful.
The big D Major receives the most consistently satisfying performance of the three. The opening Presto is richly varied, supple and sinuous, with an exciting surging momentum. The Largo e mesto is all dark, glinting marble, and in this instance the finale finds her relishing the music’s wide-ranging phrase and textural discontinuities.
So, a slightly mixed bag. But there’s much playing of real distinction here, and anyone wanting a high-quality version of the three op. 10s in state-of-the-art sound won’t go wrong. For the general collector, perhaps not a first choice (see alternatives mentioned above), but I’ll be keeping this in my collection, and can see returning to the first and third sonatas.
FANFARE: Boyd Pomeroy
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
Beethoven: Works for Voice & Orchetra / Segerstam, Turku Philharmonic
Naxos
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Nov 08, 2019
Beethoven’s permanent move to Vienna in 1782 allowed him direct contact with the operatic and Italianate culture of the city. He took lessons in Italian word setting from Salieri and almost immediately began the composition of a series of arias in that language, including Primo amore, piacer del ciel and later the dramatic recitative and aria Ah! perfido. Beethoven also set strophic songs in German that form part of the popular Singspiel tradition which are genial and rare examples of his art. Here, the songs are performed by soprano Reetta Haavisto, tenor Dan Karlstrom, and baritone Kevin Greenlaw.
His appointment in 1757 as maestro di capilla and organist at the Escorial, the royal palace established by Philip II of Spain, allowed Antonio Soler to mix with fellow court musicians, among whom was Domenico Scarlatti, whose influence was to remain profound. Soler wrote some 150 sonatas, his greatest compositional memorial, most for the young prince, Don Gabriel. The works in this volume reveal Soler’s mastery of dashing bravura and his exploitation of a full keyboard range in Sonata No. 88, felicities of hand-crossing in Sonata No. 89, and his awareness of the contemporary influence of Haydn in Sonata No. 92.
Haydn: Opera At Eszterhaza / Huss, Haydn Sinfonietta Wien
BIS
SACD
$21.99Dec 01, 2009
Haydn composed more than twenty operas, mainly for the sumptuous theatre at Eszterháza, the palace of his long-time employers, the princes of Esterházy. Even so, his work in the operatic field remains largely neglected. This disc focuses on an even more closely guarded secret: the so-called 'insertion arias' that Haydn wrote for inclusion in operas by other composers. The rarely, if at all, recorded music includes Haydn's three contributions to La Circe, an opera pasticcio which combined music by several composers, and six of the surviving insertion arias. Among these is Infelice sventurata, written for an opera by Cimarosa, and one of Haydn's finest arias, here movingly performed by Miah Persson. The Swedish soprano shares the greater part of the programme with the Swiss tenor Bernard Richter. The latter in Ah, tu non senti, amico takes on what, according to the initiated liner notes of conductor and Haydn specialist Manfred Huss, 'may be the highest drama in eighteenth-century music - ghostly and spine-chilling in a Hitchcockian manner.' In contrast, Huss describes the concluding tercet from La Circe as 'a tremendously witty and energetic and also dramatic scene that sounds like Mozart - or perhaps even like Rossini'. This varied programme thus becomes an illustration of Mozart's verdict on Haydn as an opera composer: 'Nobody can do all of this - flirt and unsettle, provoke laughter and deep emotions - as well as Haydn!' It is presented by Manfred Huss and his period band Haydn Sinfonietta Wien as part of a Haydn bicentenary celebration, which includes four previous, highly acclaimed releases. The opera fragment Acide (BIS-SACD-1812) was called 'a wonderful tribute to Joseph Haydn' by the reviewer of MusicWeb International, who also found Bernard Richter 'outstanding' in the title role. The review of the marionette opera Philemon und Baucis (BIS-SACD-1813) on ClassicsToday.com described the work as 'exceptionally moving stuff, full of Sturm und Drang, with ... music of substantial humanity and warmth.' And the playing of Haydn Sinfonietta Wien on the two collections of overtures (BIS-CD-1818) and chamber works (BIS-CD-1796/98) has been unanimously praised: 'the ideal interpreters for these works' (Pizzicato) and 'sensational... lively tempos, gutsy brass and timpani, perky winds, and stunning music' (ClassicsToday.com).
Tartini: Vertigo - The Last Violin Sonatas / Duo Tartini
MUSO
CD
$20.99Sep 25, 2020
In rendering homage to the master of Padua on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of his death, the choice proved to be delicate given the abundance of music of constant and acceptable quality. David Plantier and Annabelle Luis have selected the 5 unpublished sonatas in this programme from Manuscript 9796, preserved in the Bibliotheque nationale de France, and taken from the Italian city in 1796 by Napoleon’s army as a prize of war. Four of these date from the latter years of Tartini. They all have in common an extreme virtuosity necessary for performance, yet also the necessity of a perfect mastery of the instrument for producing a natural, musical version, the reflection of the composer’s typical cantabile. David Plantier is without question the baroque violinist most suited for this mission, having been a passionate defender of Tartini and his music for years. Giuseppe Tartini often performed in duets with his cellist friend the abbé Vandini. The destiny of these two formidable musicians was indivisible, and it is this historic duet that the Duo Tartini aims to bring back to life; the violin and the cello give this richly diverse music a setting of velvet tones, they revitalize the beauty and modernity within so as to touch the hearts of contemporary listeners.
The pianist Anthony Spiri is considered among today's most respected vocal accompanists, chamber musicians and soloists. Born in the USA, he received his training in Cleveland and Boston before removing to Europe where he completed his studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Mr. Spiri is a professor of piano chamber music at Cologne's Musikhochschule. Special attention in the pianist's discography is given over to his modern piano recordings of Bach, father & sons, as is demonstrated here via this W.F. Bach release, his follow-up to his earlier OehmsClassics Faure release.
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-4 / Brautigam, Willens, Kolner Akademie
BIS
SACD
$15.99$21.99Save 25%Oct 14, 2016
In this final volume of Mozart's complete piano concertos, Ronald Brautigam and Die Kölner Akademie, listeners are treated to Mozart's very earliest attempts in the genre. In these works, young Mozart expands his existing sonata movements into proper concertos, many believe this was a task given to him by his father, Leopold. After a few years, Mozart adopted a more mature approach to the concertos but still used arrangements of sonatas as inspiration. "An ideal mixture of clarity and stylish effervescene" - International Record Review
MOZART Piano Sonatas: in c, K 457; in C, K 545; in B?, K 333. Rondos: in F, K 494; in D, K 485; in a, K 511 • Marcia Hadjimarkos (fp) • AVIE 2138 (76:29)
The best compass, it seems to me, for successful traversal of Mozart’s piano music is constant reference to and evocation of his operatic style. If some gesture cannot conceivably be accomplished by the voice, accompanied by a late 18th-century pit orchestra, chances are it is an anachronism and has no place within Mozart’s keyboard textures. Listening to Avie’s remarkable new release of three sonatas and three rondos by Mozart, played superbly by Marcia Hadjimarkos, the imagination repeatedly roams to the operatic stage where, of the generations after Monteverdi and prior to Verdi and Wagner, the Austrian master reigns supreme.
A native of Oregon, Hadjimarkos earned degrees at the University of Iowa before pursuing her studies at the Paris Conservatoire with Jos van Immerseel; she has specialized in performing on the fortepiano and clavichord since the 1980s. One of the more appealing aspects of Hadjimarkos’s interpretations is her exploitation of the richly varied registers of her instrument (in this case a replica of a 1793 Sebastian Lengerer fortepiano by Christopher Clarke). Mozart himself was keen to mine this expressive potential on the pianos of his day; this tendency constitutes a veritable hallmark of his style that unfortunately is all but lost on modern pianos. Hadjimarkos never neglects expressive nuance in melodic inflections and her varied strategies of attack and release result in a realm of beautifully realized legato and detached effects. The lavishly applied variants—to the repeat of the exposition of the C-Major Sonata and indeed to each thematic repetition in the D-Major Rondo, to cite but two examples—seem both appropriate and inevitable. Nor does Hadjimarkos shy from engaging the una corda mechanism of her fortepiano: witness its highly effective use for long stretches in the F-Major Rondo and in the Andante of the C-Major Sonata.
As a player, Hadjimarkos remains rooted “in the moment,” lending her performances a refreshing emotional immediacy. Inevitably, one comes across the curious interpretive choice. At the beginning of the development in the first movement of the C-Minor Sonata, for instance, Hadjimarkos lifts the dampers in the ascending triad, the central thematic material of the entire movement, which she plays (appropriately) secco elsewhere in the exposition and recapitulation.
The recording was made in Chenôves, France, in August 2004. The parish church there has a sweet, flattering acoustic for the Clarke fortepiano. The engineers have done a marvelous job and the sound is dimensional and clear. Brian Robins wrote the engaging booklet notes, to which Christopher Clarke contributed information on his fortepiano.
This is living, breathing Mozart interpretation of a very high order, simultaneously innocent of “received wisdom” or “tradition” (which, as Artur Schnabel was fond of saying, is nothing but a collection of bad habits) and constantly informed by obvious immersion in the music of earlier masters, including C. P. E. Bach and Haydn. Those who still prefer their Mozart on the modern concert grand will no doubt continue to enjoy the performances of Schnabel (Music & Arts Programs of America 1193) and what perhaps remains the all-around best complete recording of the sonatas, that of Lili Kraus (Sony 88808). But those with an ear for the manifold beauties of the instrument that Mozart knew and loved—the late 18th-century Viennese action piano—are not likely to find more imaginatively realized, full-blooded, or loving readings than these presented by Marcia Hadjimarkos. Very highly recommended.
After devoting an album to sonatas by Giuseppe Tartini, for this anniversary year of the illustrious Paduan virtuoso, Evgeny Sviridov offers us a recording of violin concertos. This is his first collaboration with Millenium Orchestra, the ensemble founded by Leonardo Garcia Alarcon in the framework of CAVEMA in Namur. Most of the concertos selected come from manuscript copies made in eighteenth century Germany, where Tartini’s reputation was very high. Evgeny Sviridov has found in these scores cadenzas and ornaments which are very probably in the hand of Johann Georg Pisendel, the great virtuoso violinist of the Dresden court, a friend (and interpreter) of Johann Sebastian Bach! Following a practice that was becoming increasingly common in Germany at that time, one of the concertos has two horn parts in addition to the strings. Of the 130 or so surviving violin concertos, Evgeny Sviridov has selected five.
Noted for his clarity of line and purity of tone, pianist Gottlieb Wallisch focuses on Franz Joseph Haydn’s London period for his fourth Linn recording. +The famed London Sonatas can be seen as the distillation of the composer’s entire sonata-writing experience. +Mr. Wallisch won the ‘Joseph Haydn Prize’ as well as first prize at the prestigious Stravinsky Awards at age 16, thus launching his international career. +"His playing is a thing of rare beauty and a joy to behold." - Fanfare
It is often said that Beethoven's three String Trios Op.9, together with Mozart's Divertimento, form the pinnacle of their genre - one which by the beginning of the 19th century would be almost supplanted by the string quartet. Be that as it may; it would be hugely misleading to dismiss the composer's first attempts, the Trio Op.3 and the Serenade Op.8, as mere preparations. Both works are in fact exceptionally fertile examples of the suite form, in Mozart's and Beethoven's day surviving in the guise of divertimentos and serenades. While the Op. 9 trios are all cast in the four-movement mould that we are used to from the symphonies, sonatas and string quartets of the classical period, these works consist of sequences of six and eight movements respectively, with minuets, marches and instructions such as 'alla polacca' reminding us of courtly light music from an earlier period. In spite of such touches, however, they are far from 'old-fashioned': the adventurous spirit of the young Beethoven is plain to hear, in the exceptional creative imagination in terms of textures, thematic development and formal innovation, and in the masterful writing, which gives each instrument an equal importance and a highly individual treatment. This is music which needs a first-class chamber ensemble made up of three soloists in order to be fully realized, and with the Trio Zimmermann that is exactly what is on offer here.
One of the outstanding composers of his day, Johann Adolph Hasse was seen as possessing "the same qualities of true genius, taste and judgment" as his librettist Pietro Metastasio. Didone abbandonata represents the once hugely popular 18th century genre of opera seria, exploring the same tragic story as Purcell's earlier Dido and Aeneas while expanding the heroine's conflicts between regal duties, love, and helplessness in the face of desertion.
Salieri: Prima la musica e poi le parole - Mozart: Der Schau
Belvedere Edition
CD
$22.99Jun 01, 2018
Emperor Joseph II was partial to musical contests. In 1786 he decided to regale his visitors with a contest involving what were then the two most popular forms of vocal music for the stage: Italian opera and the German Singspiel. And so he commissioned two works from two composers, both of them outstanding in their respective fields, each work to involve the same basic arrangement. For the Italian opera the choice fell on Antonio Salieri, the director of music at the Vienna Court Opera, while Mozart was chosen to write the German Singspiel. The first performance took place at a magnificent gala at Schönbrunn 1786, when two stages were set up, one at each end of the Orangery. This musical contest produced no outright winner, Joseph II having been astute enough to offer his visitors only the crème de la crème of singers and composers. Salieri’s stature as an opera composer was abundantly demonstrated by Nikolaus Harnoncourt when he conducted Prima la musica at the Mozart Week Festival in Salzburg in 2002 – but at no point was Mozart’s own reputation impugned in consequence. The performance of both works is captured on this new release.
